Video footage shown in Tatane case

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Published Apr 26, 2012

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Ficksburg - The Ficksburg Regional Court will watch more video footage on Thursday of the protest in which Andries Tatane was allegedly assaulted and murdered by police.

The court was shown one police video on Wednesday, but proceedings were adjourned when there was a problem showing a number of other videos.

Seven policemen are accused of assaulting and killing Tatane in a protest march in April 2011.

In the indictment, the state has alleged that two of them fired rubber bullets at Tatane at close range. One of the shots was fired directly at his chest and penetrated his chest cavity.

The state has further alleged that the policemen did not try to apprehend Tatane, but let him go and he staggered away, collapsed and died.

According to the indictment, the cause of Tatane’s death was a gunshot wound to the chest.

The policemen have denied all allegations against them and have denied that they acted unlawfully, as set out in the charge sheet.

The video showed that Tatane clashed with police twice. The first time, he took of his shirt during the struggle, and then community members wrestled him away from the police.

The alleged assault and shooting happened during the second clash.

The policemen's counsel Johann Nel asked that the videos be studied before he ended the cross-examination of the state’s first witness, local teacher Phillip Selokoe.

Selokoe is the deputy-chairperson of a movement established to take a memorandum of problems about lack of services delivery to the Setsoto local municipality.

The court case has created huge interest in the town with residents filling the court room to capacity each day this week. - Sapa

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